I've got that sinking feeling..

Venice Travel Blog

Today our plan is to walk through all
the small back streets of Venice and see how lost we can get.
However before we start that we sat a little cafe for some espressos
and then bought a map so that we could find our way out at some
point. It was so nice to walk around the streets away from all the
tourists, occasionally bumping into some that were checking the map,
but mainly seeing the locals who of course had no trouble with all
the small lanes and paths criss-crossing the canals. The buildings
are so old and it's hard to find one that doesn't have the plaster or
concrete on the outside walls falling off. You'd normally think that
these buildings are just derelict but it really just adds to the
charm of the place.

We somehow found ourselves in the
middle of the shopping district and also the middle of the tourists.

Craig enjoying his espresso

It was cool seeing all the small shops in all the lanes, but not nice
having to navigate all the people. But as we kept walking it started
to get worse until we found ourselves in the main piazza with
thousands of other people and pigeons. Suddenly Venice lots it's
charm and all we wanted to do was get out of there and back into the
back streets. Eventually we got away from everyone and found a nice
little restaurant near the naval buildings so we sat, ate and
relaxed.

We found our location on the map and
made a mental note of where to avoid so we decided to head towards
the water and some of the parks that are there. As we were walking
around the parks we stumbled across an international arts exhibit
from some time ago. Most countries had their own little building
which at some point contained art.

It would seem that once the
exhibition was over, they took the art and abandoned the buildings.
Was a bit eerie walking around the outsides of the buildings looking
at all the over grown plants.

The day was getting on and we had
wanted to check out the gondolas before heading back to the camp for
dinner, plus we were quite far from where the ferry leaves from so we
decided to head back into the city, but also trying to avoid the
crowds. Eventually we came across some gondolas and after some
umming and ahhing over the price, we fell for the tourist trap and
jumped on board. It was nice to go for a 40min gondola ride and see
what the buildings looked like from the water (more dilapidated) but
not sure it was worth the price you have to pay.

Unfortunately Craig's contact lens
decided to give him troubles and so once the gondola was finished we
headed for a toilet.

At this point we'd lost track of where we were
headed as we walked through a variety of lanes, back alleys and
across bridges. Thankfully we saw a great little wine shop which was
selling the local stuff for 3euros for 1L so we had to jump on that.
Comes straight out of a stainless tank and poured into a plastic
bottle – all class.

Now it was at this point we found
ourselves lost even though we had a map – mainly because the street
names we could see weren't on the map. We sort of figured out a
likely place we were, but that turned out very wrong. Thankfully we
hadn't gone too far before having to turn around and head back in the
other (correct) direction.

Once back at camp we sat down outside
our chalet and got stuck into the local Merlot, variety of salami,
some pickled veg and cheese. None of it any good for our health, but
at the time thoroughly enjoyed. Had a really good time eating and
drinking that's for sure.